Messages

4661

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advice on components for a new build.

« on: May 03, 2018, 08:51:23 PM »

Hi,

why would you want to complicate matters by plopping a controller in the mix ?

Mach's Parallel Port and Driver IS a controller, its just that it uses the PC's CPU rather than some external
FPGA or DSP chip.

There are issues with all of em

Yes thats correct and there are problems with Machs Parallel Port as well.

Craig

4662

General Mach Discussion / Re: Problems with ref all home

« on: May 03, 2018, 12:14:00 AM »

Hi,
I'm confused, I thought that if you have a motor slaved, and permanently so, ie that they cant be unlinked to square the
gantry then ONLY the primary axis is checked for homing. If both the master and the slave are checked then Mach will
look for TWO home switches.

If I'm guessing correctly Mach is looking for a second home switch and is not finding it.

May I suggest confirm that Y and A are slaved on then Slaving page and uncheck the A axis homing on the Home/limits page.
I would expect that you have ONE home switch for the Y axis  checked on your inputs page, ie no A axis home switch enabled.

Craig

4663

General Mach Discussion / Re: Advice on components for a new build.

« on: May 02, 2018, 08:01:43 PM »

Hi,
that is the fundemental question, go with an external motion controller or stick with a parallel port?.
Having experienced both I would go for an external controller...

Craig

4664

General Mach Discussion / Re: HELP MACH3

« on: May 02, 2018, 07:44:06 PM »

Hi,
I switched to Mach4 and am unfamiliar with lathe CNC ops. Manuals are fine things... if you read them.

Craig

4665

General Mach Discussion / Re: Which computer / operating system is best with Mach3

« on: May 02, 2018, 09:07:24 AM »

Hi,
yes, I took my steppers from 1800rpm to 2400rpm without losing steps and running more quietly and cooler.

I have a Ethernet SmoothStepper by Warp9. As I don't have examples by other manufacturers I can't definitely say that they are as good but that is my expectation.
It comes about because they ALL have hardware timers which are not subject to jitter like an interrupt driven software timer.

I run a dual core Atom MiniItx single board computer, Windows7 Embedded 32bit and NO graphics card. In short this is a very modest PC, I bought it about four years ago so
its still fairly new and so far has been reliable. It has an SSD so I expect another ten years yet. I used it with two parallel ports and Mach3 for three years and then switched to Mach4
and the ESS about 18 moths ago.

Despite the really wimpy PC it rocks along no problems. I have run the Mach4/ESS combination from my i7/16G laptop and it performs absolutely indentically to the wee Atom. The truth is
that you don't need a grunty PC to run Mach, its not a power hungry application, what it requires is consistent and continous service.

As ger21 points out if you have a well sorted PC that runs the parallel port really well you may not see a huge improvement. I always thought my parallel port ran well but I got a bigger improvement
than I expected.

I would chose a controller that has a Mach4 plugin should you ever wish to switch, just load a new plugin and away you go. At the current time the ESS by Warp9, the UC100,300 and 400 by CNCDrive,
the 57CNC by PoKeys,  the PMDX422 by PMDX, the HiCon by Vital Systems and CsLabs are all worthy contenders. If I understand the PMDX-422 is Mach4 only,that is it doesn't have a Mach3 plugin.
CSLabs have a Mach4 plugin but its a bit ragged yet and I've been less than impressed at their willingness to do anything about it, seems a shame because they have a good reputation with Mach3.
The best of the Chinese stuff seems to be XHC and I think is little better than junk and their Mach4 stuff just plain doesn't work.

Craig

4666

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: editing feed and speed wizard?

« on: May 02, 2018, 08:06:46 AM »

Hi,
I've just been fiddling round with some code and I attempted to open a compiled script (extension .mcc) with the new Zero Brane editor and it comes back EscLuaR.

The Feed and Speed script/module/chunk that you tried to open is already compiled so no editor will open it. If there is a decompiler fo Lua I've never seen it and you lose
so much readability that its dubious that you'd get anything useful from it anyway.

Its a classic way to stop people from stealing your source code, once its compiled it can still be used, or rather it is in prime condition for use and can be copied but no-one, except
a few computer geeks, can decompile and see all your trickery.

Craig

4667

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: Toggle button

« on: May 02, 2018, 07:48:17 AM »

Hi,
I have a little code that does things a little differently.
First I set up two toggle buttons, one ON/OFF and one FWD/REV. Note there is no need to put them in the signal library, they can be attached direct to an input signal,
I chose ISIG_INPUT10 and ISIG_INPUT11 respectively and these can in turn be assigned to a pin which is hooked to your external toggle switches.

There a four fragments of code, an 'up' script and a 'down' script for each button. I arbitrarily chose OSIG_OUTPUT4 for spindleON/spindleOFF and OSIG_OUTPUT5 for FWD/REV

ON/OFF up script:

Code: [Select]

local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_OUTPUT4)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,1)
ON/OFF down script:

Code: [Select]

local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_OUTPUT4)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,0)
FWD/REV up script:

Code: [Select]

local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_OUTPUT5)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,1)
FWD/REV down script:

Code: [Select]

local inst=mc.mcGetInstance()
local hsig=mc.mcSignalGetHandle(inst,mc.OSIG_OUTPUT5)
mc.mcSignalSetState(hsig,0)
Achieves the same result but uses the properties of the screen toggle button. Note if you want to be super code efficient you can attach an output directly to a toggle button so you don't even
have to write any scripts. I know.....where's the fun in that!

Craig

4668

General Mach Discussion / Re: Milling an Area on wood bed to get flat surface

« on: May 02, 2018, 05:46:02 AM »

Hi,
if you are convinced you need a flat surface then use the rectangular pocketing Wizard that ships with Mach3. It will generate Gcode
to cut a pocket, the base of which will be flat.

I would not recommend holding the PCB blank down with clamps or screws around the periphery, it distorts the blank and all that effort you put into getting a flat surface
to work from is in vain. I would use double sided tape. Note also that fiberglass PCB blank board almost always has some warp or bow in it, usually not more than 10 thou
over several inches but its enough to cause problems when isolation routing. Double sided tape can help pull that bow/warp out of the board.

With Autoleveller I don't bother machining the spoil board flat, the probing and subsequent Z axis Gcode optimization obviates the need for it.

Craig

4669

General Mach Discussion / Re: Mach3 driver not install correctly on W7 32 bit.

« on: May 02, 2018, 05:31:34 AM »

Hi,
I thought the symptom of a Windows7 update was that as soon as you attempted to run the PP driver the PC rebooted. That is different to
what is described by the OP.

Craig

4670

General Mach Discussion / Re: HELP MACH3

« on: May 02, 2018, 05:11:33 AM »

Hi,
this is the list for Mach4 lathe (from the manual on the Artsoft site):

G73.1 High Speed Peck Drilling (Advanced)
G74.1 Reverse Tapping (Advanced)
G76 Thread Cutting Cycle (Two block style)
G76 Thread Cutting Cycle (One block style)
G76.1 Fine Boring (Advanced)
G80 Canned Cycle Cancel
G81.1 Hole Drilling (Advanced)
G82.1 Spot Face (Advanced)51
G83 Face Drilling
G83.1 Deep Hole Peck Drilling (Advanced)
G84 Face Tapping
G84.1 Tapping (Advanced)
G84.2 Right Hand Rigid Tapping* (Advanced)
G84.3 Left Hand Rigid Tapping* (Advanced)
G85 Face Boring
G85.1 Boring, Retract at Feedrate (Advanced)
G86.1 Boring, Retract at Rapid (Advanced)
G87 Side Drilling
G87.1 Back Boring (Advanced)
G88 Side Tapping
G88.1 Boring, Manual Retract (Advanced)
G89 Side Boring
G89.1 Boring with Dwell (Advanced)

Craig